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DECISION No

DECISION No. 2/1998/QD-TTg OF JANUARY 6, 1998 ON THE APPROVAL OF THE SOCIO-ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT MASTER PLAN FOR THE NORTH EASTERN REGION FROM NOW TO 2010

THE PRIME MINISTER

Pursuant to the Law on Organization of the Government of September 30, 1992;

At the proposal of the Chairman of the State Council For Evaluation of Investment Projects in Official Dispatch No. 3202-BKH/HDTD of May 31, 1997.

DECIDES:

Article 1.- To approve the socio-economic development master plan for the north eastern region till 2010, including 13 provinces of Ha Giang, Tuyen Quang, Cao Bang, Lang Son, Lao Cai, Yen Bai, Bac Can, Thai Nguyen, Phu Tho, Vinh Phuc, Bac Giang, Bac Ninh and Quang Ninh, with the following principal contents:

1. MAJOR DEVELOPMENT OBJECTIVES:

1. To strive for to achieve an annual GDP growth rate of over 10% from now till the year 2010, with about 10% for the period from now to 2000, so as to achieve the tempo of a per- ita GDP by 2000 being equal to 1.6 times that of 1994 and a per- ita GDP by 2010 equal to 2.5 times that of 2000. To ensure harmonization in the fast, effective and sustainable development, hunger must be basically eliminated before the year 2000 and the number of poor households must be reduced by 30-40% as compared with the present time.

2. Almost all the provinces shall strive for the balance between their own budgetary expenditures and revenues in their territories after 2000; raise domestic savings. The domestic savings for investment shall account for 12-13% and 18-20% of GDP by 2000 and 2010 respectively.

3. The export value shall rise at the rate of 22-23%/year for the period from now till 2010. The export value of the north eastern region shall account for about 4% of the national export value by the year 2010

4. By 2010, the sedentarization shall be basically completed.

5. To raise the people's physical strength and intellectual level; to ensure a higher and higher cultural and spiritual living standards and a more and more civilized life style for the people. To minimize epidemics and dangerous diseases like malaria, goiter, child malnutrition and social evils such as superstition, drug addiction and injection, prostitution, etc.

6. To rehabilitate and better the environment; to increase the percentage of the forest coverage of natural land areas from 22.8% now to 60% by 2010 (including the areas under perennial industrial plants and fruit trees); to protect the lands es and the ecological environment, especially in big cities, industrial parks, seaports and tourist resorts.

7. To coordinate with the forces of the central level in maintaining the political security, social order and safety, national sovereignty and territorial integrity on the land and sea areas, contributing to the creation of stability necessary for the process of the regional and national development.

II. MAJOR SOCIO-ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT TASKS:

1. Regarding industrial development:

- To strive for an average annual growth rate of about 14-15% throughout the period from now to 2010.

- To form leading industries or industrial products, of which some shall play as the spearhead on the basis of the raw material and market advantages, such as the ore exploiting and selecting and mineral refining industry, (coal, iron and non-ferrous metals); the construction material industry; the agricultural and forestrial and marine product processing industry; the metallurgical and mechanical manufacture industry; medium and small thermo and hydro-electric projects; the fertilizer and chemical industry; the consumer goods industry.

- To improve and expand the existing industrial zones and, at the same time, to step by step improve the infrastructure conditions for the formation of new ones. Industrial development must be accompanied with environmental protection.

- To maintain and develop handicraft trades and occupations, especially the production of fine arts products of high export value.

2. Regarding agricultural development:

- To strive to achieve an agricultural growth rate of about 4% for the whole period of 1996-2010 .

- To renovate the agricultural structure: to restructure the plant cropping along the direction of producing commodities (reducing the ratio of food crops and increasing the ratio of industrial plants, fruit trees and vegetables); to develop food production along the direction of intensive farming so as to meet the local demand to the possible extent. To boost the expansion of areas specialized in certain plants to produce great quantities of marketable products. To restructure the raising of domestic animals. To attach importance to the development of areas under specialty trees.

- To renew the existing breeds and strains and produce sufficient quantities of animal breeds and plant strains and at the same time apply scientific and technical advances, also to the post-harvest phase.

3. Regarding forestrial development:

- To develop forestry along the direction of socialization, to perform the function of protecting headwater forests, planting new forests and preserving the environment and the ecological system.

- To renew the plant strains and restructure the cropping of plants to meet the market demand for forest products.

- To build areas of materials for paper industry, of pit-prop wood, cinnamon and anise trees,

4. Services:

- The trade service should be strongly developed to shift to the commodity economy. The GDP of the trade service is expected to reach 9% of the region's GDP and 21.6% of the GDP of all services by 2000 which will rise to 13% and 26% respectively by the year 2010. To speed up the export of goods through the border with China. To attach importance to the import of machinery, equipment and supplies for production. To strongly develop the network of trade centers and border gate economic zones. To promote trade activities in the highland, remote and deep-lying areas as well as islands. To give maximum encouragement to various kinds of investment in production, business and service sectors so as to narrow the gap between these areas and others.

- Tourism: To strongly develop tourism so as to increase its ratio in the region's GDP to 6% by 2000 and 10% by 2010. To boost marine tourism and build a number of tourist resorts, clusters and intra-regional, inter-regional and international tours. To invest in building the material base for the tourist branch and at the same time promote the training of its managerial personnel.

- To develop other forms of service such as transit transportation, finance, banking, technology transfer, information and communication service, etc.

- To step up the development of border-gate areas, creating the basis for raising the acity of railway and road transit transportation.

5. Regarding the social development:

- Education and training:: Priority shall be given to educational and training development in highland border and island areas. To diversify the educational forms to attract more and more school-age children to schools and classes.

- Health: To improve the material conditions for medical establishments to ensure the quality of primary health care, medical examination and treatment, substantially reduce maternal and child malnutrition. To control malaria, eradicate goiter, cretinism and iodide deficiency-related diseases by 2000. There shall be no commune without a health center before 2010.

- Culture and information - radio and television: during the period from now to 2000 every province in the region strives to have a cultural center or a cultural-sports center, a complete museum and build their radio and television stations in accordance with the master plan already approved by the Government.

To attach importance to, preserve and bring into full play the cultural identities of various ethnicities, to strive to satisfy the audio-visual needs of the people in the region at the country's average level in the period 2001-2010.

6. Infrastructure development:

- The development of key infrastructure must be prioritized and carried out one step ahead. To concentrate on developing the traffic network. Apart from the materialization of the communication program till 2000 of the Ministry of Communications and Transport, it is necessary to continue upgrading National Highways 2, 3, 1 and 70. Besides, the belt roads of National Highways 4, N1 and N2 shall be restored and upgraded before 2005 to form a complete network of roads for the entire north eastern region. 70% and 90% of the communes shall have access to electricity by 2000 and 2010 respectively. To build step by step the irrigation network in service of production and the water supply system for the cities, provincial and district towns, townships and industrial parks, to supply clean water for rural areas, with attention paid to highland areas inhabited by ethnic minority people. To develop the post and telecommunications network with 75% and 100% of the communes to have telephones by 2000 and 2010 respectively.

7. Regarding the environment:

Importance must be attached to the environmental issues in parallel with the socio-economic development: To regreen waste land and bare hills and mountains, giving priority to headwater areas and areas in need of protective forests; to combat air, land and water source pollution, to preserve and protect the environment in the coastal areas, cities, industrial centers, the Quang Ninh colliery area as well as other mining areas.

8. Regarding security and defense:

To consolidate and build strong border, coastal and island defense lines, to materialize the Party's resolutions on the task of ensuring security and defense. To combine this task with economic development so as to perform the strategic tasks in the north-eastern region.

III. MAJOR SOLUTIONS:

1. To realize the master plan there must be a series of comprehensive measures to mobilize all resources inside and outside the country for the socio-economic development of the north-eastern region. The major socio-economic development orientations and tasks stated in the plan must be reflected and concretized in five-year and annual plans of each province in the north-eastern region through specific development programs and investment projects. The areas that should be given priority for development include: the network of urban centers, economic corridors, border and rural corridors (especially rural, mountainous areas and islands).

- For the provinces having the national border, they should step up the development of border gate areas into economic and trading centers. At the same time attention should be paid to the construction of the material base of border guard stations and posts so as to create conditions to support the socio-economic development of the border areas. The integration and coordination of the programs should be studied with a view to stepping up the development of mountainous and border areas and areas facing special difficulties. This requires a close coordination between the Central Government and the provinces to ensure the comprehensiveness, concentration and effectiveness of these programs.

2. To concretize the solutions regarding the ital, human resources, science, technology, environment and market expansion through various mechanisms and policies suited to the characteristics of the entire region and each province and submit them to the Prime Minister for consideration and decision in order to well achieve the socio-economic development objectives and fulfill the tasks stated in the master plan.

3. On the basis of the master plan already approved by the Prime Minister, it is necessary to carefully review the system of the programs on the socio-economic development in the northeastern region, the list of investment projects and rearrange a reasonable priority order so as to put them gradually into the annual plans of the provinces. For mountainous border communes and districts which are key areas for security and meet with numerous difficulties, there should be detailed socio-economic development plans and highly congregate measures so as to create development steps in the immediate stage and make preparations for the following stage.

Article 2.- The ministries and branches at the central level and the People's Committees of the northeastern provinces shall have to draw up detailed five-year and annual plans so as to organize and direct the implementation of the programs and projects that fall under the scope of their direction according to the development objectives and orientations stated in the Decision to approve this master plan.

The presidents of the People's Committees of the northeastern provinces shall have to closely coordinate with the ministries and branches of the central level in elaborating the set programs and projects and organizing the implementation.

Article 3.- In the course of implementing the master plan on the development of the northeastern region, the Ministry of Planning and Investment shall, together with the concerned ministries and branches and the People's Committees of the northeastern provinces, sum up, evaluate and draw experiences so as to promptly adjust and supplement the master plan to ensure its compliance with the national master plan.

Article 4.- This Decision takes effect 15 days after its signing.

The presidents of the People's Committees of the northeastern provinces and the concerned ministers, heads of the ministerial-level agencies and heads of the agencies attached to the Government shall have to implement this Decision.

The Prime Minister

PHAN VAN KHAI